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Benefits of HS2 were exaggerated, secret report reveals

The Sunday Telegraph has learned that even as they promoted the supposed benefits of the controversial high-speed line, civil servants were sitting on a secret 170-page report which revealed those benefits to be grossly exaggerated.

One senior official at the DfT explicitly told colleagues that the research "could not be used" because it would spoil the case for HS2, according to Colin Allen, a local resident who has sought the document’s release under the Freedom of Information Act.

“I was absolutely horrified that they were covering this up,” he said.

The cornerstone of the new line's business case is a claim that the first phase, from London to Birmingham, will generate benefits worth £23 billion, more than the £17 billion cost of building it.

The vast majority of the supposed benefits - £20.1 billion – come from claimed increases in productivity on the basis that quicker journeys will leave people with more time to work.

The then transport secretary, Philip Hammond, said it would “reshape Britain’s economic geography” and “transform Britain’s competitiveness as profoundly as the coming of the railways in the 19th century.”

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, claimed that the line would have a “transformative” effect on the economy.

I think this is very good news and of cause for rejoicing.
To be honest it was never feasible from the start , given the state of the economy.
Of course the government won't announce anything or at least not for a while, because it's egg-on-face embarrassment!

Another excuse being thrown about is that sorting out the current north/south routes would ruin everyone's weekends for the next decade-and-a-half, even though it would be a third of the price, so HS2 will be a better option from that point of view too.

I've always thought this was a stupidly thought out (or not thought out) idea. I hope it doesn't happen. So many lovely rural areas of historic nature and industry will be affected.That's not forgetting the people who live there now.

I started another thread about the development of land at Ettington. I am sure Warwickshire's beauty is becoming more and more scarce as Mr C and his various family off shoots plough through with such proposals. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ive-homes.html